In Another Country This Would Be Called a Coup: Detroit NAACP Head on Trump Trying to Overturn Vote

As part of the unprecedented attempt to keep President Trump in office despite his election loss, Republicans have focused on Michigan, where the party is seeking a delay in the certification of the vote results and to throw out votes from Detroit, which is overwhelmingly Black. A group of Michigan Republicans met with President Trump at the White House last week in what was widely viewed as an attempt by Trump to personally pressure the lawmakers to block Biden from being awarded the state’s 16 electoral votes. “This is an attempt to disenfranchise the African American vote and to give the election to Trump,” says Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. “If we were in a different country, this would be called a political coup.”

Saudi Women's Rights Activist's Trial Moved to Terrorism Court

THE GUARDIAN: Loujain al-Hathloul looked weak and unwell after 900 days in jail, said her family

Saudi Arabia has moved the trial of activist Loujain al-Hathloul to a special court that handles terrorism cases, a move condemned by human rights campaigners as a heavy-handed attempt to muzzle dissent.

Hathloul has been in jail without trial for over 900 days now, and her family said she looked weak and unwell at a rare court appearance on Wednesday, her body shaking and her voice faint.

She appeared with three other women who were also arrested in 2018, shortly before the government dropped its longstanding ban on women driving; Hathloul had been a prominent face of the grassroots campaign for change.

The court appearance came just after Saudi Arabia wrapped up its role as virtual host of this year’s G20 summit, which had women’s empowerment as one of its themes. » | Emma Graham-Harrison | Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Saudi Arabia to Put Women’s Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul On Trial

THE GUARDIAN: Family fears activist being pressured into giving false confessions

Saudi Arabia will put women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on trial on Wednesday, more than 900 days after she was detained, and just after the country wrapped up hosting duties on a virtual G20 summit, her family have been told.

Hathloul is on hunger strike and has been held incommunicado for nearly a month. A UN women’s rights committee recently expressed alarm about her failing health. Her sister Lina al-Hathloul fears she is being pressured into giving false confessions that could be used against her in court.

“I am extremely worried and anxious about this trial. Everything about her case is illegal and unjust,” Lina told the Guardian, pointing out that the family had only been given one day’s notice of the court date. » | Emma Graham-Harrison | Tuesday, November 24, 2020

‘He was nine’: The Saudi minors still on death row despite royal decree »

Brexit Stems from a Civil War in Capitalism – We Are All Just Collateral Damage

THE GUARDIAN: To one sort of capitalist, the insecurity and chaos that Brexit will bring is horrifying. To the other, is it highly profitable

Where there is chaos, the government will multiply it. Where people are pushed to the brink, it will shove them over. Boris Johnson ignored the pleas of businesses and politicians across the UK – especially in Northern Ireland – to extend the Brexit transition process. Never mind the pandemic, never mind unemployment, poverty and insecurity – nothing must prevent our experiment in unassisted flight. We will leap from the white cliffs on 1 January, come what may. » | George Monbiot | Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Fox News' Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson Distance Themselves from Trump

THE GUARDIAN: Rush Limbaugh also distances himself from president’s efforts to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden

Donald Trump continued to gravitate towards his new rightwing media allies at TV channels One America Network and Newsmax on Tuesday, even as heavyweight supporters Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh distanced themselves from the president’s attempts to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden.

On Fox News on Monday, Ingraham said: “Unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic and unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on 20 January.”

Carlson claimed “the 2020 election was not fair”, but admitted Trump had lost it.

On his radio show, Limbaugh attacked Trump’s lawyers in Pennsylvania, led by Rudy Giuliani, for failing to provide any evidence to back claims of voter fraud in the state. » | Martin Pengelly in New York | Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Donald Trump: Cashing In on the Presidency | The Daily Social Distancing Show

Did Trump run for president just to make money? Maybe. Did he realize that becoming President could make him even more money than he imagined? Definitely. Here’s a look at how Trump cashed in on the presidency.

Netanyahu Holds Secret Meeting with Saudi Crown Prince – Reports

THE GUARDIAN: Israeli PM is said to have flown to Saudi Arabia to meet Mohammed bin Salman and Mike Pompeo

Benjamin Netanyahu has made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, according to media reports in Israel.

The Sunday night trip, if confirmed, would mark an extremely rare high-level meeting between the long-time foes, one that Israel has been pushing for in its efforts for regional acceptance. Hebrew-language reports, citing unnamed Israeli officials, said Netanyahu was accompanied by Yossi Cohen, the head of the country’s Mossad spy agency.

Saudi state media did not refer to a trip and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment. » | Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem | Monday, November 23, 2020

Business Leaders, Citing Damage to Country, Urge Trump to Begin Transition

THE NEW YORK TIMES: At the urging of New York’s attorney general, business leaders in New York push for the Trump administration to begin a transfer of power.

Concerned that President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results is hurting the country, more than 100 chief executives plan to ask the administration on Monday to immediately acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner and begin the transition to a new administration.

As a way of gaining leverage over the G.O.P., some of the executives have also discussed withholding campaign donations from the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia unless party leaders agree to push for a presidential transition, according to four people who participated in a conference call Friday in which the notion was discussed. The two runoff elections in Georgia, which will take place in early January, will determine the balance of power in the United States Senate. » | Kate Kelly and Danny Hakim | Monday, November 23, 2020

Ali Velshi on President Trump’s Real Legacy | MSNBC

President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election are predictable and will achieve nothing but the erosion of our democracy. That will be Trump’s real legacy. He will do damage, but he won’t succeed.

Trump Faces Pressure from Republicans to Drop 'Corrosive' Fight to Overturn Election

THE GUARDIAN: John Bolton: Trump is ‘throwing rocks through windows’ / HR McMaster: Trump’s actions sowing doubt among electorate

Donald Trump faced growing pressure from Republicans on Sunday to drop his chaotic, last-ditch fight to overturn the US presidential election, as victor Joe Biden prepared to start naming his cabinet and a Pennsylvania judge compared Trump’s legal case there to “Frankenstein’s monster”.

Despite Republican leadership in Washington standing behind the president’s claims that the 3 November election was stolen from him by nationwide voter fraud, other prominent figures, including two of his former national security advisers, were blunt.

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said that Biden would be sworn in in January and added: “The real question is how much damage Trump can do before that happens.”

The president’s efforts were designed mainly to sow chaos and confusion, he told CNN’s State of the Union show, as a demonstration more of “raw political power” than a genuine legal exercise.

Bolton noted that the Trump campaign has so far lost all but two of more than 30 legal challenges in various states.

“Right now Trump is throwing rocks through windows, he is the political equivalent of a street rioter,” Bolton said. » | Miranda Bryant in New York and agency | Sunday, November 22, 2020

Give up the struggle for heaven’s sake. You are one of the world’s losers. Nothing that you can do can change this fact. You’ve had your chance and you’ve blown it. Now it is time for you to step aside and give someone else a chance. Do the right thing and step aside as gracefully as you still can. The world needs to move on from the chaos you have created. Adieu. President Trump! Enjoy your retirement! – © Mark

Barbra Streisand - 1980 - Guilty

Trump Slams Paris Climate Accord in His Last G20 Appearance | G20 Riyadh

Leaders of the world's wealthiest countries are wrapping up their online G20 summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. US President Donald Trump defended his environmental record and justified his decision to pull out of the international Paris climate agreement. The virtual gathering has been dominated by efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic and the global recession. A draft declaration shows the biggest economies will pledge to pay for fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and testing, so that poor countries are not left out. Climate change and the environment have emerged as another theme as the summit draws to a close.

British Ski Workers ‘Set to Lose Seasonal Jobs’ after Brexit

THE OBSERVER: Instructors, chalet cooks, drivers and nannies among 25,000 who may no longer be eligible to take up posts in EU countries

Adieu to the British seasonaire. Barring an 11th-hour reprieve, Europe’s ski resorts will soon be largely devoid of British seasonal workers.

From 1 January, post-Brexit, British employees seeking seasonal work as chalet hosts, instructors, drivers and nannies in European ski resorts will find it more difficult to obtain work.

“It’s game over unless the government makes an agreement with the EU that will mean there is a way for British staff to work across Europe in the tourism industry on seasonal jobs,” said Charles Owen, director of Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBiT), which represents many holiday firms.

The trade body claims that up to 25,000 British seasonal worker jobs in the travel industry will be lost, many contracted by UK-based companies. » | Jamie Doward | Sunday, November 22, 2020

Trump's Monumental Sulk: President Retreats from Public Eye as Covid Ravages US

THE GUARDIAN: Two weeks after his defeat, Trump has gone from always present to effectively missing, behavior that many say is unprecedented and dangerous

There was one thing that even Donald Trump’s harshest critics were never able to accuse him of: invisibility.

The outgoing US president held endless campaign rallies, verbally sparred with reporters on the way to his helicopter and spent so long on the phone to Fox News shows that even pliable hosts had to gently but firmly hang up. He was the master of saturating every news cycle with his voice and image.

Yet two weeks after his defeat by Joe Biden in the election, Trump has effectively gone missing in action. Day after day passes without a public sighting. He does not hold press conferences any more. He has even stopped calling into conservative media. » | David Smith in Washington | Saturday, November 21, 2020

Joe Biden Says He Would Be Ready to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal

President Donald Trump unraveled a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor by quitting the Iranian nuclear deal two years ago and subjecting Tehran to harsh economic sanctions. President-Elect Joe Biden says under his administration, Washington would be ready to rejoin the agreement. Political analyst and a Professor at Tehran University Mohammad Marandi weighs in.

The Real Reason Trump Won’t Concede

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich exposes how Trump is swindling his supporters through his meaningless "Official Election Defense Fund".

Trump Tells G20 Leaders He Wants to Work with Them ‘for a Long Time’

THE OBSERVER: US president delivers boasts and falsehoods while other members focus on dealing with the pandemic

Donald Trump has taken his campaign to deny the results of the US presidential election global, telling leaders at the G20 summit he’s looking forward to going on working with them.

The gathering of leaders of major world economies is being held online this year, but could have been an occasion for Trump to bid his peers goodbye and pledge American support in the battle against Covid-19. Instead, according to audio of his comments obtained by the Observer, he said: “It’s been a great honour to work with you, and I look forward to working with you again for a long time.” » | Emma Graham-Harrison and Julian Borger | Saturday, November 21, 2020

Invoking a Fantasy Winston Churchill Won’t Help as Brexit Becomes Grim Reality

THE GUARDIAN: Casting the former PM as a little Englander defying Europe is historical nonsense

Winston Churchill should be held to account when Britain throws itself out of the EU. Who is to blame for breaking up and impoverishing the United Kingdom? Churchill, by his followers’ own admission. Who is responsible for the border in the Irish Sea, the food shortages, the irresistible rise of Scottish nationalism, the needless blows to the stricken economy of a plague-ridden nation? No need to ask: Winston’s been at it again.

Not the Churchill of history, but a Churchillian delusion that has been a generation in the making. Its falsity will become apparent on 1 January. Until then, Tories can still pretend that their promises that Brexit would enrich us weren’t false. They can still opine that once “Boris” has completed Brexit he can move on to levelling up or tackling Covid or whatever other issue flits through his half-formed mind. They still don’t realise that in a few weeks their words will sound as absurd as saying: “After I’ve broken my legs, I will run a marathon.” » | Nick Cohen | Saturday, November 21, 2020

Neal Katyal: All of Trump’s Criminal Immunity Expires in about 60 Days | Deadline | MSNBC

Former U.S. acting solicitor general Neal Katyal explains the charges President Trump might face after he leaves office and the reason why his current legal efforts are incriminating him even more. Aired on 11/20/2020.

Smerconish: Here's the Real Danger in Trump's Charade

President Trump's dangerous efforts to "gum up" the election process is leading too many Americans not to accept the results of the 2020 election, Michael Smerconish says, because his enablers remain unwilling to tell the emperor he has no clothes.